Hello Everyone,
Awesome runthrough of our music last night!
We will NOT have a mixed sectional rehearsal next week, but please do bring any questions you may have regarding your music to rehearsal and I am sure that Kay and Deb will be glad to address any concerns.
Honour the Earth
The whirlies and rainstick are at my house so you won’t have them for 12/9 but I will bring them for 12/16.
For clarification:
– Rainstick begins after Ann says, “No one greater than another.” Rainstick ends around m. 15 (does not need to be exact but should be definitely out at m. 20).
– Bird calls begin at the end of the narration. They end at m. 20
– C whirlies, both high and low, enter at m. 20. They continue until m. 56 (when the drum comes in, the whirlies stop). During the overtone singing section beginning at m. 115, watch for my cue – the C high whirlie enters m. 117 (approximately 15 seconds), then the C low whirlies enter m. 118 (approximately 15 seconds) – again, watch for the cue. Then both C high and low whirlies continue through m. 126 (out at m. 127). Re-enter m. 131 and continue to m. 138 (out at m. 139). The high C whirlie ‘calls’ by spinning faster on ‘mother.’ C whirlies never play when the A whirlies are playing.
-Clapsticks play after ‘friend’ mm. 33, 39, 122, 126, 134, 138 and also during the overtone singing section on cue, m. 117 (when the C high whirlie enters), m. 118 (when the C low whirlies enter) and m. 119 (when the voices enter).
– A whirlies only play mm. 127-130, 139–end. A whirlies never play when the C whirlies are playing.
– Singers – overtone singing section at m. 115 with only Leandra (approximately 15 seconds). If anyone else has really strong overtones by January, we will add you after Leandra has soloed for a bit. Then, when the didgeridoo enters in m. 116, other singers also enter – hum softly if you are not singing overtones, louder if you are singing overtones. The didgeridoo will be pretty loud so we’ll work this out with Daran Wallman when we rehearse with him in January. You don’t need to enter all at once. It would be better if you were stealthy about your entrance.
Here in My Heart
– Sounds lovely! The diction has become much clearer since we have made more effort to articulate our consonants. I know it takes more air and effort, but it really expresses the text effectively!
– m. 121, 129, 137, 145 – start those phrases mf-minus so that we have more dramatic crescendos.
– m. 149-152 keep the crescendo building (make it subtle, but keep the energy moving!) through m. 152 when you release ‘know.’
– m. 161 mp so that the repeated text is a bit louder.
– m. 169 f-minus so that when the text is repeated at m. 177 it can be slightly louder.
Nigra Sum
– watch closely for rubato, the give and take of the tempo, so that we can move together. Specifically: rit. in mm. 18, 32, 40, 47, 63, 69, 73, 78, 94, 106 to the end.
– ensemble breaths – mm. 14 (breathe on the first eighth note of the measure), 32, 40, 64, 69, 74, 82,
– mm. 90-97 the text should be: in terra nostra (NOT terrat)
– more clarity is needed with the consonant F (formosa, filiae, flores). Less emphasis is needed on finals Ts – those should be soft, not aspirate.
– overall we need to continue to work on intonation. This is the perfect piece on which to work with your tuning apps. Casals moves so beautifully through several key centers: m. 1 E-minor. (with a G-Major cadence in m. 13), m. 29 B-Major (with a G-Major cadence in mm. 39-40), m. 41 E-Major, m. 65 G-Major quickly moving to C-Major before settling into E-Major m. 83. Why is this helpful to know? It means that all the accidentals we have in this score are taking us to new key centers, and if we are not singing in tune, then that movement becomes unclear (and can be unpleasant!). It gives the listener an unsettled feeling if we are not confidently tuned in the key (for that moment!). The many key centers are one of the big challenges of this piece, and also what makes it so amazing.
– we are doing a really nice job exploring our softer singing selves!
Some Glad Morning
– The long notes need to be energized with subtle dynamic changes. For instance…m. 10-12 should have a slight crescendo on ‘one’ that peaks at ‘day’ and then decrescendos. This is not overly dramatic. Maybe a listener wouldn’t even consciously notice – but they would notice the energy in the phrase. m. 13 ‘old’ should crescendo to ‘happened.’
– When a phrase begins with ‘the,’ let the word that follows have more textual and musical emphasis. An example is m. 18-19 ‘The green came back to the branches.’
– Pick some consonants in this piece that you are going to work on clearly enunciating. For instance, Ks are needed: came, back, broke, dark, clouds, sky, track. More consonants are needed beyond Ks, that’s just an example!
Measure Me, Sky!
– I love the text painting in this piece (‘Tell me I reach by a song’) the highest note is a skip up to ‘reach.’ Please read through the text while listening to the reference recording and see what other examples you find where Elaine Hagenberg has used text painting. I think this will help inform our dynamics so that we don’t oversing this piece.
– ‘Sky’ always sings on the AH vowel until the vanishing IH vowel at the very end. Sometimes the vowel flattens (less vertical space) when the word is extended across all of the triplets or is held for extended beats.
I Am
– Although this piece has come a LONG way, we still have some work to do. I can’t emphasize enough how important rhythmic accuracy is for the success of this piece. (We are doing so many other things well!). Please, as you have time, sing through this with the practice tracks (midi files). They should help keep you honest! Not all of the ritards are accurately represented in the midi files (especially mm. 145-149) but the sections where we lack precision are represented by the midi files rhythmically exactly as we should perform. After you practice with the midi files, listen (and then sing along) to the recording. So helpful!
– We also need to address some missing consonants and have more unified vowels. So much fun yet to go on this piece!
Sky Dances
– My one critique on this gorgeous piece is to unify and shorten the S (so many words have S in them in this piece!). The one exception is ‘snake.’ That S can be prominent. I think if we are all accurately placing the S it won’t sound as long or prominent. Something to think about.
Sing, Wearing the Sky
– Sopranos please work on mm. 11-12. I promise I just sang it accurately. I apologize that I have not been clear about this rhythm. I may decide to conduct these syllables rather than the 2 pattern which doesn’t help very much for this rhythm. We’ll see what works best – I will do my best to be clear here.
– Please everyone check your pitch in m. 15. I always hear a pitch in addition to the D…and everyone has a D in this measure, violin, sopranos, and altos. We shouldn’t hear any other pitch! It could be that some altos are not releasing from your held note from m. 14. Altos have a rest on beats 1 and 2 of m. 15.
– Tuning is improved mm. 20-22 but I think can get even better with unified vowels.
– m. 37 needs a crescendo…right now we are just singing on ‘and’ and it needs to build to ‘dance!’
– It’s very important to stay together on the LA LA sections…don’t let the L get in your way of being together! Use the tip of your tongue so that it doesn’t get sluggish. Your jaw should be relaxed and stable….should not go up and down dramatically with the repeated LAs (look in the mirror and access).
– more crescendo mm. 95-103. It’s all pretty loud but should definitely gradually
crescendo. Then we have a big crescendo to the end. Ah!
I Love You/What a Wonderful World
– Please review. I’m looking forward to hearing this when I return on the 16th.
Kay and Deb are going to lead rehearsal on 12/9 (THANK YOU!) while I am in France having a fun (and freezing) time! I will most definitely miss being with you all – I hope there is a lot of holiday music being played in the Christmas markets so that I can sing along while I sip my mulled wine!
Au revoir!
Laura